Re: Salvo Missiles (was UN Ship Nomenklatura)

> I was recently on the receiving end of a demonstration on how to use
SML's.	En
> Masse.
> My opponent had cruiser sized vessels with multiple missle launchers
(but
only
> 2 loads per launcher).  He could, and did, throw out enough SML's in a
single
> turn to overwhelm any defence on any ship.  My big tough BB's died in
a
single
> turn.  When he ran out of missiles, his escorts closed in and cleaned
up
what
> was left.

Average number of missiles reaching an undefended target = 3.5
Avg dmg/missile = 3.5
Avg dmg/salvo = 12.25
Each PDS on average shoots down .8 missile (includes rerolls) or 2.8 avg
damage points.
Therefore, to stop a salvo, you need 4.375 PDS (call it 4 or 5 depending
on
how optimistic you are).
Multiply by the number of salvos you expect to receive at a time.
(The largest PDS suites I see in the Fleet Book have 6).
Bear in mind that shields don't help and only half the damage is reduced
by
armor.

Each fighter kills 0.4 missile on average.  Each interceptor kills 0.6
on
average.  Therefore an interceptor squadron should on average knock out
a
complete salvo (of course, you also lose one interceptor, on average, 
each
time you try this).

Let's say you want a hard kill on a Szent Istvan (60 hull, 14 armor, 4
PDS).
1 salvo is absorbed by the PDS suite.
Approximately 2 salvoes will each be half absorbed by armor, but we're
going for the whole things, so let's add armor and hull together for
74pts.
 Divide by 12.25 damage/salvo and you get approximately 6 salvo rounds.
Therefore if you sling 7 salvos simultaneously (and hit, but given that
a
Szent has a Thrust 2, how could you miss?), you will in all likelihood
see
a small dense nebula where the BDN used to be--or at the very least, one
ensign and three ratings will be frantically applying duct tape and
superglue to the few remaining chunks of bulkhead.
On the other hand, if you toss in one salvo at a time, you will probably
scratch its paint but not much more.

(The numbers above are not absolutely exact as I ignore the effects of
overkill against a salvo--if a salvo only turns out to have 1 missile,
the
extra kills you'd get from your interceptors or PDS don't carry over. 
Insofar as I can tell, this effect is detrimental only to the target,
not
the firer).

Fortunately most of the FB ships don't seem to be able to generate more
than two or three salvoes at a time.  In a design-your-own competition,
though, I predict we'll see a batch of missile racks.